(Inside the Archaeological Research Building – at the Director's Office)
Louis shouted in a fit of rage.
"You bastard!!"
The masked man whispered softly.
[Psychological Manipulation: Emotional Surge]
Louis charged at the masked man, swinging his scythe toward the man's neck. But the blow was stopped—deflected by a single poker card.
Shocked, Louis quickly retreated.
His anger only grew fiercer.
The masked man burst into maniacal laughter.
"Didn't you want to know who I am? Fine then. I'm the one whose true face brings regret. I am truth and I am lies. I... am the Joker.....hahahahha"
Louis didn't care for his words. He launched forward, unleashing a flurry of powerful scythe strikes—each one fast and heavy, brimming with fury.
But none of them landed.
The Joker dodged them all with eerie ease, as if they were nothing but a breeze.
Louis aimed a powerful overhead slash, but the Joker spun out of the way and countered with a sharp kick to Louis's abdomen, sending him flying into a glass wall.
The glass shattered. Louis crashed through it and plummeted toward the ground—
—but managed to catch himself mid-fall, jamming his scythe into the side of the building. Swinging himself, he smashed through a lower-floor window with his leg and re-entered the building.
Then came the change.
Louis felt his rage start to fade. He was regaining control over his emotions.
That's when it clicked.
He reached for his comm and contacted HQ. An intelligence officer answered.
"Yes, Colonel Louis?"
Louis responded urgently.
"Send reinforcements to—"
Before he could finish, the Joker appeared, walking slowly, waving his finger in disapproval.
He stopped and said coldly:
"If I were you, I wouldn't make that call."
With a snap of his fingers, several major commercial buildings in the city exploded at once, leaving behind devastation and chaos.
Louis sighed and spoke to the intelligence officer.
"Don't send anyone. I'll handle this myself."
"Colonel, what's happening—"
Louis ended the call. He turned to the Joker with a calm smile.
"Shall we continue our fight?"
His composure unsettled the Joker, who responded cautiously.
"With pleasure."
Louis lunged forward, swinging a horizontal slash with his scythe. The Joker narrowly dodged. Without pause, Louis followed with a vertical strike—this time cutting into the Joker's leg.
The Joker flinched. His face revealed clear signs of panic.
"I see... you've figured out my trick."
Louis's expression remained blank.
"It wasn't hard. You feed on the emotions I project, which lets you distort reality—even stopping my scythe with a simple poker card."
"Impressive... you're a seasoned warrior."
"I've seen worse. In the Abyss."
The Joker grinned wickedly.
"Then let's move to stage two."
[Psychological Manipulation: The Manipulator's Domain]
The entire space around them changed. Darkness consumed everything. It was as if they were trapped in a black void with no end.
Louis looked around and muttered to himself:
"Another illusion, huh?"
Staying calm, he dashed toward the Joker and attempted a full-body horizontal slash. But just before the blade connected, the Joker's body turned pitch-black, melting into the ground beneath them.
Suddenly, dark hands emerged from below, grabbing Louis's legs and holding him in place.
He struggled to break free, even slashing at them with his scythe—but they didn't budge.
In that moment, a poker card came flying at him from the right.
He deflected it—but the impact shook his balance.
Another card came from the left.
He quickly recovered and blocked it too, but the force was just as strong.
One more came from the front—he dodged by leaning back.
But then, from behind—a final card appeared right in front of his face.
At the last second, he turned his head to the right—but not fast enough. The card slashed his left cheek, drawing blood.
The barrage finally ended.
Louis stood, bruised and scratched—not only from the attack, but from his earlier fall and the broken glass.
Then a voice echoed from every direction, laughing softly with a mocking tone.
"Hehehe… are you enjoying this? Did you like the show?"
Louis didn't flinch. Despite everything, his face was expressionless.
"Yes. I enjoyed it. Nice show."
The laughter twisted into a voice filled with anger and frustration.
"Liar... you LIAR! If you were really enjoying it... aggghhh... LIAR!"
Louis responded coldly.
"Then it's time to end this fight. I'm getting bored."
[Aura Unleashed]
The atmosphere around Louis shifted—everything screamed danger. His scythe was now completely engulfed in a dark aura.
At that moment, shadowy hands emerged from all directions, reaching out to attack him.
Yet Louis remained calm, preparing to strike.
[Scythe Style – First Form: Death Slash]
He leapt high into the air, and the shadowy hands followed, merging together like a wave.
Swinging his scythe downward, he unleashed slashes of pure aura energy.
The strike wiped out all the shadowy hands in a single blow. They didn't regenerate.
It seemed the aura was weakening the domain's power.
Louis landed back on the ground—and then the Joker appeared. But this time, multiple copies of him stood behind, all speaking in unison:
"Which one of us is real… hehehe."
[Scythe Style – Second Form: Soul Reaper]
Louis focused his aura, channeling it into the blade and around his feet.
He dashed forward at double his original speed, cutting through the Joker's clones one after another like slicing a thread.
The Joker couldn't even catch a glimpse of him—then, with a diagonal slash from the lower abdomen to the upper chest, Louis struck the real one.
All the clones vanished instantly. The Joker dropped to his knees.
The domain began to fade… slowly dissolving until it vanished completely. They were back inside the building where the fight had started.
The Joker's body was soaked in blood, and he coughed it from his mouth.
Louis stood before him, speaking with a mocking tone:
"Are all your tricks finally over?"
The Joker, clutching his chest in pain, coughed and replied with a broken voice:
"Hehehe... cough cough... not... y-yet..."
At that moment, he pulled a smoke bomb from his cloak.
Louis reacted quickly, slashing the bomb before it could activate.
But unexpectedly, it exploded into a thick gas cloud. Louis hadn't seen that coming.
He stepped back, covering his nose and mouth with his hand from the choking smoke.
With one powerful swing of his scythe, he cleared the smoke in a single motion—
—but the Joker was gone.
From a distance, the Joker's voice echoed:
"Let's meet again next time… and have some fun… hehehe…"
Then his voice faded into silence.
Louis stood still for a moment, then smirked and said sarcastically:
"Oh great… seems like trouble never wants to leave me alone."
He picked up his phone and called headquarters again.
"Hello, hello."
"Colonel Louis! What's going on out there?! Why did you cut the call earlier?!"
"He got away."
"Who got away, Colonel? Who were you fighting?!"
"I was up against a member of the Abyssal Darkness Organization. He called himself the Joker. I'll head back soon to file a full report."
"Understood."
He ended the call.
And with that… Louis's battle against the Joker was over.